About Micro Weld
For nearly a century, Micro Weld has provided manufacturers in a variety of industries with dependable butt welders for use with both ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Micro Weld trains customer employees to use the equipment safely and provides tools and support, including repair services. Based in Peoria, Illinois, Micro Weld supplies customers around the world through its extensive international rep network.
Situation: A Motivated B2B Marketing Team Was Determined to Move an Antiquated Industrial Website Into the Future
The previous Micro Weld website made it difficult for users to find the welders and parts relevant to their needs. Built on a third-party industrial sourcing platform, the website was no longer completely accurate because it did not easily permit the addition of new products, new content or new pages.
Looking for a partner to help it gain control over its website and establish the website as a flexible, functional hub for future marketing, Micro Weld connected with Windmill Strategy after researching digital agencies with experience designing and developing websites for industrial manufacturers. Windmill set out to create a strong website foundation for Micro Weld that would drive users to relevant content and allow the team to create a robust marketing strategy based on the new website.
Solution: Finding An Efficient, Customized Way to Compile Complex Product Information
The overarching strategy for the Micro Weld website was to develop a more intuitive user experience that would make the website easier to navigate. Furthermore, it needed to be a flexible, easy-to-update foundation for SEO and marketing. Keeping in mind the client’s timeline, we began by prioritizing various features and functionality.
Because the product data on the third-party platform was in an unsupported format, creating a more intuitive user experience required rebuilding the product catalog from the ground up. We worked with the client to build a custom import spreadsheet template—from scratch—to house all of the product data, specs, spreadsheets and images. It accommodated all of the complex data, including ranges and variables, and allowed the client to reorganize the data according to the ways they wanted users to be able to filter and find the products. Upfront work on developing the structure of this sheet helped to keep development and product data migration costs within scope.
Once the spreadsheet was approved, we were able to bulk-upload the data into a custom, field-driven website that allows Micro Weld much more flexibility in the future for adding new products. This data set can also be exported for other uses, if needed.
Attention to detail was exceptionally important as each aspect of the advanced filtering was considered. However, compromise, creative solutions and a phased approach were important for adhering to the timeline. For example, one proposed feature would have allowed users to toggle between imperial and metric measurements in the product specifications. Unfortunately, a dynamic toggle would have pushed out the timeline. The solution: we were able to come to a happy middle ground in which both specs are displayed.
Among other filters, visitors to the website can search by industry for the equipment that will serve their welding needs. Job titles vary, whether customers come from the wire and cable industry, tire manufacturing, office supply manufacturing or any of the many other industries that Micro Weld serves. Some customers have been tasked with finding a butt welder and need one as soon as possible, but others, often with an engineering background, are interested in taking a deep dive into details and specifications. Either way, the website needs to be able to speak to customers quickly and efficiently so they can be farther down the sales funnel by the time they actually reach out via phone, email or the contact form on the website.
To support SEO and marketing, authoring capabilities were a major consideration. The previous website system allowed Micro Weld virtually zero control over their content. For the new website, we developed better authoring in the back end as well as pre-configured content block patterns, so that building out new content and pages is quick and easy.
Other aspects of the WordPress development process included:
- Automated translation via GTranslate, which Micro Weld later opted to upgrade to a paid version in order to better manage some manual translation work.
- HubSpot integration, including the conversion form on the contact page and general integration embedded for analytical tracking.
- Custom site search, implemented in order to target some specific terms that are commonly searched for in the industry, including certain numbered specs.
- Cookiebot for GDPR compliance
- AccessiBe for website accessibility compliance
Results: An Intuitive User Experience and a Platform for Robust Marketing Campaigns
With a motivated, responsive client eager to support their business with a better user experience and robust marketing, the Micro Weld website was completed on time with full functionality. Windmill was able to be nimble and solution-oriented in order to deliver the project within budget and timeline constraints.
The butt welder “finder” is the flagship functionality of the website. The finder acts as an advanced filter—the user is taken to an overview archive page of all products that has dynamic filtering down the left-hand side. Users of the website can easily refine their search for a welder that meets their requirements or easily navigate to information about installation, training, parts, repairs and technology upgrades. The Micro Weld team can now easily create landing pages, use email drip campaigns that drive traffic to the website and host downloadable PDFs.
The company’s Director of Marketing and Customer Relationships lauds Windmill for its “incredible team that was impressive from beginning to end” and for taking a strategic approach to building something that everyone would be proud of.
Are you looking for a digital marketing partner that understands the complexities of your industry? Let’s talk today
Windmill Strategy is a web design company & digital marketing agency helping B2B industrial manufacturing companies achieve increased visibility, higher quality leads, and greater marketing ROI through smarter web design. Our website design and B2B digital marketing approach goes beyond “more traffic,” seeking out better traffic, by gaining the attention of the specific niche groups of buyers and influencers that represent your best customers. We help our clients communicate and sell their complex products and services to multiple audiences – be it through web design or digital marketing and SEO. Working collaboratively with your in-house marketing and sales team, we design websites that drive leads and sales that result in overall business growth. Schedule a call to learn more.